


Day 3 - Mixed Signals

by moonblossom



Series: Pre-Nickels Nickels 30 Day Challenge [3]
Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: ASL, Communication, M/M, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 17:45:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2397206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonblossom/pseuds/moonblossom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Communication is always important.</p>
<p>
  <a href="http://wintergrey.dreamwidth.org/15168.html">Day 3: Secret Language/Signals</a>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 3 - Mixed Signals

The bright sun glared off the sand as Nick swept his gaze through the scope. He took a steadying breath and did his best to ignore the trickle of sweat running down between his shoulder blades as he kept his eyes peeled. The glint of sun on metal caught his eye and he trained his eyes on where he knew Kelly was hiding.

Even though Kelly had no way of knowing Nick was watching, he signaled with his hands, gestures they'd all studied and memorised time and time again. _Terrain clear. No hostiles._ Nick nodded, even though he knew Kelly couldn't see him.

He noticed Kelly holding up his hand, and squinted. Either Kelly had sand in his nose, or he'd switched to American Sign and was letting Nick know he was bored. Nick stifled a snort. This was just a practice exercise, but they still had to be professional here, damn it.

He caught Kelly winking as he drew his hand, fingers curled inwards, down the front of his chest towards his stomach. He repeated the gesture, and then made a similar one higher up on his throat. Nick groaned. Apparently, on top of being bored, Kelly was both hungry and horny. Nick wasn't sure why he'd felt the need to share, and he blocked the thoughts from his mind.

Nick saw Kelly picking up his own viewing goggles and grumbled to himself, pinching the air in front of his mouth, telling Kels in no uncertain terms to _shut up_.

The wire in his ear crackled to life, Eli's voice coming in quiet and steady. "O'Flaherty, Abbott's trying to signal something and I have no fucking idea what."

Nick groaned, trying to stifle a laugh. "Trust me, you don't want to know. Just ignore him."

Thankfully, Kelly had given up his running commentary, sticking to familiar and accepted hand gestures after that and not too long later the blare of an alarm signalled that the exercise was over and they could clear the field.

As Nick stalked across the ground, Kelly ran up to meet him. He threw an arm over Kelly's shoulder, smacking him playfully in the back of the head as he did.

"Where the fuck did you learn ASL, Abbott? And how come you've never bothered mentioning it before?"

Kelly shrugged, a quiet smile playing across his usually animated face. "One of the foster homes. There was this kid, Jake. He was a few years younger than me. Nobody else had bothered to learn, you know?" His face fell for a fraction of a second as he remembered, and Nick's heart thudded in his chest. "Taught myself, thought maybe he'd feel a bit less lonely."

A slow warmth spread through Nick's chest as Kelly spoke. That sounded very much like Kelly, going out of his way to make sure everyone felt loved and included. Without thinking, Nick squeezed his shoulder.

"How about you?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah, how'd you even know I'd be able to read you?" Nick looked sideways at him as they walked into the mess. Kelly smirked.

"I didn't. Just a hunch. Paid off though, didn't it?"

Nick nodded, a wry smile playing on his lips. "Taught myself out of boredom. Thought it'd come in handy some day. And if my eardrums ever get blown out, I'm set."

Kelly smacked his chest playfully as they grabbed some lunch and sat down, waiting for the rest of Sidewinder to find their way to the table. It didn't come up again for the rest of the day, but from then on, whenever things were too loud or too crazy, either on the field or when they were out relaxing, Nick caught himself sending brief messages to Kelly, ignoring the pointed looks from Ty and the rest of the team.

It became a comforting routine, something that belonged to the two of them. Eventually Kelly taught the rest of the team some basic and useful signs to combine with their standard hand-signals, but none of the others ever used them outside of exercises or combat situations. That remained something solely for Nick and Kelly, something for which Nick was unreasonably grateful.


End file.
